1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image data control device, an image data control program, a computer readable recording medium on which the program is stored, an image forming device, and an image reading device. In particular, the invention relates to an image data control device having a storage device for accumulating jobs containing image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming device such as a digital copying machine incorporates, in addition to a memory for storing image data by page during printing, a high capacity hard disk capable of storing jobs containing image data.
In this kind of image forming device, since it is possible to accumulate jobs already processed, for example, with printing, in a storage device such as a hard disk, it is also possible to reuse the accumulated processed jobs, for example, by reprinting them.
However, when the hard disk capacity is reached, it is sometimes necessary for a user to remove some of the accumulated jobs manually in order to execute a new job. In order to solve this problem, equipment has been known, for example, a device disclosed by Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-10-171617 that monitors the space available in the hard disk when a job is to be stored in the hard disk and automatically removes old jobs on the first come first out basis.
However, in case of the device disclosed by the publication, it may not be possible to store a new job due to capacity limitation, if the job is as large as over 10,000 pages of image data, even if old jobs are removed. In this case, not only the old stored jobs are automatically removed and destroyed, but also the new job with a large data size is still not executable, thus creating a problem of being unable to achieve an efficient and appropriate use of the hard disk.